


Incubation Period

by thirty2flavors



Category: Borderlands (Video Games), Tales from the Borderlands - Fandom
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Post-Game(s), cameos from the rest of the gang - Freeform, is it technically babyfic if it's not their baby?, men holding babies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-04
Updated: 2018-03-04
Packaged: 2019-03-27 01:04:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13869795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thirty2flavors/pseuds/thirty2flavors
Summary: “Guess what the baby’s name is.” Planting both hands on the table, Rhys loomed over all of them like an ecstatic giraffe. “Guess!”One of the Children of Helios has a baby. Rhys is thrilled. Sasha is not.





	Incubation Period

**Author's Note:**

  * For [firstofoctober](https://archiveofourown.org/users/firstofoctober/gifts).



> The closest thing I've written to babyfic. Who am I.
> 
> Shout out to @firstofoctober, who loves babyfic.

“Holy shit, is that a baby?”

Half-risen from his seat, Rhys craned his long neck over Vaughn’s head to get a better look at the woman in the distance, oblivious to the story he’d interrupted (one of Fiona’s, likely untrue) or the cup he knocked with his elbow (Sasha’s, three-quarters full).

Fiona looked over her shoulder, nudging the brim of her hat out of her line of sight. “Well, if it’s a burrito, I’m concerned by how much it’s moving.”

“Oh, yeah,” said Vaughn, following Rhys’ gaze too. “That’s Tatiana. She gave birth, like, a month ago? She’s the first.” He scratched his cheek. “Which is kinda surprising, actually. I guess all those corporate safe sex PSAs really paid off.”

“ _Pregnancy is nine months, your career is forever_ ,” singsonged Yvette. “God, I’d forgotten those.”

“ _Parenthood: it doesn’t pay_ ,” said Vaughn. He frowned. “Those were pretty weird, now that I think about it.”

Sasha raised an eyebrow. “You had to think about it?” 

Rhys gave no indication of having heard any of them. “Man, do you know how long it’s been since I saw a baby?” he asked, crouched an inch off his chair. “I, like, basically forgot children actually existed.”

Fiona, sensing her storytelling audience was lost, sat back in her seat. “You a big fan of babies, Rhys?”

He shrugged. He still hadn’t sat down. “Sure. Who isn’t?”

Vaughn raised his hand. Sasha twisted her lips and looked down at her plate. 

“Hard pass,” said Yvette. “Little demons.”

“I hated Sasha when she was born,” said Fiona conversationally. “I thought she was gonna eat all my food.” She tipped her chair onto its back legs. “I was right.”

“Well, all of you are monsters,” Rhys concluded. He pushed himself out of his chair properly. “Suit yourselves. _I’m_ gonna go say hi.”

“You know it probably can’t talk, right?” Fiona called after him, smirking even as Rhys ignored her.

“‘Probably’?” Vaughn repeated.

Yvette made a noise of general displeasure.

Sasha stayed quiet, poking the questionable lump of greens on her plate. 

——

Rhys came back beaming like a mad man.

“ _Guess_ what the baby’s name is.” Planting both hands on the table, he loomed over all of them like an ecstatic giraffe. “Guess!”

“Fitzroy,” said Fiona immediately, and Rhys stared at her. “Fitzgerald. Fitzwilliam?”

“What?” Rhys’ delight was replaced by a furrowed brow and a frown. “No. Obviously. Why would you…?” He shook his head and waved a hand to get back on track. “No, her name is _Reese_.”

He punctuated it with another beaming smile. It went unreturned from anyone at the table.

“With—with two E’s,” he clarified. “Well. Three, if you count the one at the end.”

Vaughn stared. Sasha blinked. Yvette groaned. 

“That’s terrible. That’s, like, child abuse.” Fiona turned to Vaughn, nudging his chest with her elbow. “You’re the leader here, right? You gotta do something.”

“You guessed ‘Fitzwilliam’,” he said.

“That’s classic,” Fiona sniffed. “It’s literary!”

“ _You_ like Pride and Prejudice?” asked Yvette.

“Uh, yeah. She and her sister just have to marry some dopes and they end up totally balls-to-the-wall rich. It’s a happy ending.”

“I don’t think that’s the point of the story,” said Vaughn.

“Oh my god,” said Rhys, indignant and irritated. “Can we please focus on how awesome it is that someone named a baby after me?”

Fiona wrinkled her nose. “I’d prefer to forget ever knowing that, actually.”

“I thought you hated all the weird cult worship stuff,” said Sasha. Her voice had returned from its long sabbatical, even if her appetite hadn’t.

Her words deflected like an arrow glancing off armour; Rhys’ pride dimmed for only a second before rebounding. 

“A headless statue of Jack is creepy,” he reasoned. “A living human baby is _awesome_.”

Sasha frowned, though Rhys didn’t see; he was looking back over his shoulder again, waving his shiny chrome hand eagerly at Tatiana and baby Reese.

“Your ego is a public health concern,” said Fiona. Then she reached across the table to take a forkful of Sasha’s uneaten food.

——

Rhys’ interest in Tatiana’s baby persisted for months. He made a point of seeing her every time he visited Vaughn’s camp. He talked about her when she wasn’t around, wondering aloud about toys she might like and supplies her mother might want. He name-dropped her like she was a local celebrity whose starpower might rub off. 

Sasha mumbled her way through every conversation with a tight, panicky feeling like a vice around her throat. 

“I should check in,” he’d say, puffed up and irrationally proud. “I mean, I’m her namesake. It’s only right.”

Then he’d head off to do just that, usually leaving a bemused group of friends in his wake.

“You sure she’s not named after the candy?” Fiona had asked once. “You should ask. That’s probably it. Her mom’s probably like, ‘oh, god, this weirdo thinks I named my baby after him but I actually just love chocolate and peanut butter, two great tastes that taste great together’.”

Fiona pitched her voice higher in imitation of Tatiana, a woman she’d never spoken to. Rhys ignored her.

Sasha tried to imagine how she’d feel if there were a child named after her, but found the scenario was too ludicrous to contemplate. Prior to Reese’s sudden appearance in her conscious, the most Sasha thought about babies was during a recurring nightmare where she was spontaneously eight months pregnant and sometimes her teeth fell out. 

“Was he always like this?” she asked Vaughn, after watching Rhys skip off to play with a stranger’s baby for what felt like the hundredth time. “All… broody?”

“Broody? I dunno,” said Vaughn, shrugging. “Weren’t really a lot of babies at Hyperion. Or college. Most of the time when we talked about the future, it was about money, power and words like ‘leverage’ and ‘synergize’.” 

He grabbed one end of a storage crate, and Sasha grabbed the other. Together, they heaved the crate to the highest shelf they could. The whole structure rattled with its weight.

“It, uh, probably doesn’t help that she’s named after him, like a living breathing shrine,” Vaughn continued. “Talk about ego boost. I think he visits ‘cause he wants to see her more than he wants to see me.” He dusted his hands off and looked at her, head tilted. “But yeah, I mean, Rhys likes kids. Did you not know that? I kinda figured you guys would’ve had the kid talk by now.”

They hadn’t. If the blame had to be pinned somewhere, Sasha knew it was her fault. It didn’t matter how much she liked Rhys, or how happy she was in the present—any topic that drifted more than a month or two into the future activated a primal urge to run for her life. She joked or she derailed or she avoided, and by now Rhys had taken the hint.

“Sure we have,” she lied. 

——

She found Rhys in a quiet corner of the old station, alone except for the baby on his lap.

He held Reese upright with his left hand, cushioned against his stomach, his fingers splayed so that his thumb and his pinky spanned her entire torso. He jiggled both knees, bouncing her up and down, his neck bent as he leaned down to watch the expression on her face. 

Sasha watched them from afar, nibbling on her bottom lip. Oblivious to Sasha’s presence, Rhys looked like he was enjoying himself; she could see the gentle smile on his lips and the rounds of his cheeks. 

Something ached, deep in her chest. She stayed rooted where she was.

Rhys held his metal palm out in front of the baby, projecting… well, Sasha wasn’t sure. She walked forward another couple steps, arms folded, her eyes narrowed as she tried to decipher the images Rhys was flipping through. It almost looked like…

She took another step and grinned, suspicions confirmed: he was showing off specs and design sheets for Atlas’ latest prototypes.

“Are you marketing to a baby?” she called.

Rhys lifted his head, turning his smile on her, and the ache near Sasha’s heart peaked. 

“I thought she might like the lights,” he explained, sounding only mildly embarrassed, and then he was looking down at Reese again. “I don’t think it’s working.” He bounced his legs. “Two-Point-Oh’s kind of grumpy—”

“Two point...?”

“—ever since Tatiana left.”

Oh. Right. The mother. Sasha frowned. “Yeah, where is she?”

“She and her husband went to get some food. They asked me to look after her.” He paused. “Well... I volunteered.”

“They trust you with her?” It was meant as a joke, but Sasha winced as the words left her mouth, sharper than she meant.

Rhys didn’t seem to notice. “Hey, I’m qualified!” He gave up on the palm projection and settled for turning Reese around in his lap, pulling faces as he spoke. “Babysitting was my first job. I took a course.”

“You print business cards for that, too?” 

“No. Flyers. And I ran a viral marketing campaign.” Sensing Sasha’s stare, he looked over. “What? I had to distinguish myself in a crowded field.” He lifted his chin. “There were a lot of teenage girls in my neighborhood.”

Sasha rolled her eyes and shook her head, but the swell of affection she felt was difficult to ignore, and she bit back a smile. “Of course there were.” 

“You gonna come say hi or are you gonna keep standing six feet away?” He puffed up his cheeks and crossed his eyes for Reese’s amusement. 

Reese blinked up at him, wide-eyed and stony-faced. 

Sasha inched closer. Rhys caught her eye and grinned.

“So, Sasha, this is Reese.” With his hands occupied, he nodded between them in introduction. He turned to address the baby. “Reese, this is Sasha, who is brave, and strong, and blew up a Vault monster from the inside, and _yet_ she’s terrified of you, a tiny baby.”

Sasha scowled. “I’m not _scared_.”

Rhys raised a smug eyebrow but didn’t look over. “You’re watching me like I’m holding a live grenade.”

Sasha scoffed. “If you were holding a live grenade I’d be running. You have bad aim. I don’t trust you with a grenade.”

“Or with a baby.” 

He said it flippantly, lightly, like it was just a joke, and then he was back to pulling faces, but Sasha felt a twinge of guilt. 

“That’s not…” She sighed, letting her arms fall to her sides. “It’s not that. I just… don’t really know what to do with a baby. I’ve never really known one. I mean, we didn’t have any family, or—or friends, really, and I definitely wasn’t babysitting, so…”

She trailed off, looking down at her boots as she kicked at a scuff mark on the floor. Her cheeks burned, as they often did, when discussing her inadequate upbringing around Rhys. 

“Sash.” Rhys’ voice was kind, and she lifted her head. “C’mere.” 

Finally, with a deep breath, Sasha did. She crossed the remaining distance between them and took her place behind his chair, watching Reese cautiously over his shoulder. 

“She’s not gonna bite, I promise. She doesn’t even have teeth.” He frowned a little. “She… might start crying, though. Hasn’t cracked a smile without mom. She’s a tough audience.” 

Sasha wasn’t sure how he could tell. She studied Reese: her big blue eyes, her wispy hair, her pudgy cheeks and tiny feet and squirming arms, her tiny lips in a pout. 

“She’s really cute,” Sasha admitted.

She could _hear_ the smug grin as Rhys hummed in agreement. 

“You know,” said Rhys, “Tatiana told me about why she… why the name.” For someone who’d spent months boasting of it, he suddenly sounded shy; Sasha saw pink cresting on his cheekbones. He cleared his throat. “She said she used to want kids, when she was younger, but then she took the job with Hyperion. Helios wasn’t a very safe place for a kid—all the daycares are run by these poorly-maintained robots, plus Hyperion only gave you twelve hours of maternity leave before you had to go back to work. So she forgot about it. Figured it wasn’t gonna happen. And then…”

He didn’t need to finish that sentence; the rest of it was all around them, in the wreck of the space station they were standing in.

“Anyway, once everything settled down here, she realized she could do it. Have the family she wanted. Met a guy… boom.” He lifted Reese up like she was standing, and she kicked her legs and gurgled.

Sasha snorted. “That’s kind of stupid, isn’t it? Pandora’s not exactly kid-friendly.” 

“I... thought it was nice,” he said weakly. “It’s…” He rubbed his thumb up and down Reese’s belly, and when he spoke again his voice was low and heavy. “It’s just good to know _someone_ ended up better off because of me.”

Guilt twisted sharp in Sasha’s stomach, and her face fell. 

_Oh_ , she thought. 

Somehow it had never occurred to her that there might be more behind Rhys’ fascination than simple narcissism, but for the first time she saw the situation clearly: Reese wasn’t a shrine, she was forgiveness personified. 

“Rhys.” Sasha wrapped her arm around him from behind, sliding her hand across his chest to squeeze the opposite shoulder. “She’s not the only one better off.” 

Reese’s face lit up. So did Rhys’. “Oh! Oh, Sash, do that again!”

“Do what…?” But she’d already followed their gaze down to her arm. She moved it again experimentally. 

Her bangles clanged together. Reese giggled.

Sasha moved her arm some more, purposefully now, clinking her jewelry together as noisily as she could. Reese laughed harder, reaching out with her chubby, uncoordinated fingers, and Sasha grinned back at her.

“See?” said Rhys, unjustifiably smug. “She likes you.”

“She likes my bracelets,” Sasha corrected.

“At this age, I think that’s basically the same thing.”

Sasha crouched down, resting her chin on Rhys’ shoulder, waving her arm for Reese’s amusement. Rhys pulled the baby closer, lifting her to their eye level while she swatted at Sasha’s arm. 

“Hi, Reese,” said Sasha. “Sorry about your stupid name.”

“Don’t listen to her,” said Rhys. “It’s a great name.” His voice right in Sasha’s ear made the hair on the back of her neck prickle. “The best.” 

Giggling in delight, Reese kicked her legs, and finally one of her tiny fists made contact with a bracelet, sending it spinning around Sasha’s wrist. Sasha could feel Rhys’ grin against the side of her face, and she leaned her head against his, her heart beating a little faster. 

The ache in her chest returned, but its edges dulled into a warm glow.

“Yeah,” she amended. Her free hand slid up his back and came to rest at the crook of his neck. “It’s all right, I guess.”

Rhys twisted his head to kiss her on the temple.

Harried footsteps interrupted the pleasant static that had filled Sasha’s head. 

“Oh, my god, I am _so_ sorry, that took so much longer than I thought,” came a woman’s voice—Tatiana’s, Sasha guessed, as a woman approached them with outstretched arms. “The cafeteria was packed, and—”

“It’s fine.” Rhys lifted the baby into her mother’s waiting arms. “Really.”

“Thank you so much,” said Tatiana, scooping up Reese. “I don’t remember the last uninterrupted meal we had. I hope she wasn’t any trouble. Usually I turn around and she’s eating sand.” 

“Nah,” said Sasha, and she felt Rhys smile before she straightened up, resting her hands on his shoulders. “She was great.”

——

Sasha knew, as soon as Tatiana and her daughter left, the conversation she needed to have with Rhys.

It took her several more hours to gather her courage. Their borrowed room at Helios was dark, and they were pressed into its tiny bed, about to doze off, when she finally found her voice.

“Rhys, do you want a baby?” 

“Huh?” The hallmarks of sleepy confusion weighed down his words. “Like, right now?”

She felt a rush of gratitude for the dim light, and for the fact that he had his back to her. “What? No. No, I mean in—in general. In the future. Would you want kids?”

Rhys was quiet for a moment. Sasha’s own heartbeat thumped in her ears, and she willed it to slow down.

“Yeah,” he said eventually. He sounded uncharacteristically cautious, like he was weighing every word. “I—yeah. I always did. I mean, for a few years there I… Hyperion wasn’t…” He struggled. “I didn’t think about it so much.” His metal arm glinted in the low light as it scrubbed his face. “But yeah. I do. I’d want that, someday.”

Sasha said nothing. She stared at the ceiling, trying to judge how that made her feel.

After a minute, when she still hadn’t spoken, Rhys prompted, “Do you?” 

He asked it like a question he didn’t truly want the answer to. He didn’t turn to look at her, but she felt him tense. Sasha trained her eyes on the flecked plaster of the ceiling tile above the bed.

“I never did,” she said quietly. “I never even thought about it. It wasn’t…” She paused, clutching at the sheet on her stomach. “I only ever thought about leaving Pandora. That’s all I ever wanted.”

“Oh,” said Rhys. It was short and neutral, carefully concealing the disappointment Sasha sensed underneath. “Right.”

Sasha let out a breath. “But… I don’t know. I’m here now. Here for a while. Maybe I just need to make the most of it.” She hesitated. “It’s not as bad as it used to be. I mean, Pandora’s still awful, but it’s… I’m…” She bit her lip. “I’m happier here, now.” Her fingers twisted together as she fidgeted. “And… it might be nice. To have a family.”

Rhys shifted at that, reaching behind himself to place his hand on top of hers. 

“You have a family,” he told her seriously.

Something warm blossomed near Sasha’s heart, spreading to the tips of her toes. She smiled. “I know.” She rolled onto her side, curling up against his back, resting her forehead against the base of his neck. “You’re gonna be a really good dad, Rhys,” she said, and she meant it. More and more, she liked the idea of seeing it firsthand.

An undignified but happy noise reverberated through his chest. 

“I hope so,” he said. He grabbed her arm, tugging it up to kiss the back of her hand before settling it around his waist. “Night, Sash.” 

Sasha kissed between his shoulder blades and pulled herself closer, twisting her legs through his. As her breathing evened out with his and she started to drift off, her mind wandered through the hazy labyrinth of almost-sleep. In dreamlike fog, she pictured Rhys, bouncing on his knee a baby with brown skin and dark curls and green eyes, and for once she had no urge to run the other way. 

“Night, babe,” she whispered, though he was long asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> come say hi on tumblr: [@oodlyenough](http://oodlyenough.tumblr.com/)


End file.
